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For 2020 the word of the year is ‘pandemic.’ I’m sure that there was a fairly lengthy list of potential words: coronavirus, social-distancing, masks, shut downs, asymptomatic. However, I think that the word of the year should be JESUS. In many ways, the word of the year should always be Jesus.

Acrostic psalms are organized by the Hebrew alphabet. The first line or stanza begins with Aleph (the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet) and then each succeeding line or stanza starts with the next letter in the alphabet. These psalms are composed on this pattern to show a kind of completeness and have a clear structure that guides the listener or reader.

Instructional psalms often include comparisons between the righteous and unrighteous, the wise and the fool, or God’s way and the world’s way. These psalms seek to teach and lead people in a particular way (God’s way) and what it means to follow and be devoted to God. There are also three of these psalms that are devoted to torah as the crucial medium of relationship between God and the faithful.